The many variations of video poker have proven extremely popular with gamblers, and extremely popular for the casinos which offer them. One of the constant searches is for a method which allows for a higher potential player win, without greatly affecting the house profit. It is with this goal in mind that variations such as progressive jackpots have been implemented, as well as multi-hand games and reversible royals. Each of these provides a possible high jackpot for the player, but maintains the house advantage by reducing the payout for some of the lesser hands.
Most such games, however, do not allow for a jackpot paying much more than the 800-to-1 odds of the Royal Flush, at least not on an independent basis, i.e. other than the progressives. In addition, lowering the payouts on the lesser hands is often viewed negatively by players who have learned to expect the smaller payouts to keep them funded for more play. A way is needed to accomplish both.
Poker is essentially based on the two-dimensional nature of the playing card deck, with four suits and thirteen values. The deck may, in fact, be seen as a 4×13 matrix, and most poker hands may be seen as being based on the relationships between cards held in this matrix structure. For example, if we look at the matrix as being four columns wide, by thirteen rows, a flush is all five cards in a column, a straight is one card in each of five consecutive rows, a full house is three cards in one row and two in another, a royal flush is the top five cards in a column, etc.
By allowing video poker to deal cards from a superdeck consisting of more than one visually distinct subdeck, and by implementing payouts which depend on the subdecks from which a card was obtained as well as the suit and value of the card, the super payout can be accomplished without loss of lower payouts. Using two subdecks decreases the probability of column hands, i.e. straights, flushes, straight flushes and royal flushes, while increasing that of “row” hands, hands based on multiple cards of equal value, three-of-a-kind, full house, four-of-a-kind, five-of-a-kind (which here becomes possible without wild cards), and even pairs. However, the changes to the row hands are not so great as to require more than minimal adjustment in the payoff tables, and the decreased potential of the column hands allows the addition of a jackpot for a super royal, a royal flush with all five cards being from the same deck. In the examples provided below, the super royal may pay at least ten-thousand-to-one, which is more than twelve times as much as the standard royal on other video poker machines. See comparison to standard jacks-or-better depicted in FIG. 3.